But on Thursday he promised to reform the ruling party and rescue Kenya's struggling economy.

He also wants to forgive and forget corruption, committed during the Moi era.

His main challenger is veteran opposition leader Mwai Kibaki, who once served as vice president under President Moi.

He has forged an opposition alliance, composed of almost all Kenya's opposition parties and a large group of ruling party defectors known as the National Rainbow Coalition (Narc).

The election campaign is expected to be closely fought. Both main candidates are Kikuyus, Kenya's largest tribe.

A third possible candidate is former ruling party minister Simeon Nyachae who runs the Ford People's Party. He fell out with Narc recently but party officials says the door remains open for negotiations.

The previous two elections held in the multi-party era were marred by violence. A recent judicial report suggested several senior politicians should be investigated for their role in state sponsored violence in the run up to the polls.

Constitution

Our East Africa correspondent Andrew Harding says that by dissolving parliament now, President Moi has also delivered a serious blow to the country's constitutional review process.

If the opposition remain united they have the numbers to win

A national conference was due to meet next week to finalise sweeping changes to the constitution, including plans to reduce dramatically the power of the presidency.

Mr Moi has now scuttled that process, at least for the short term.

All political parties say they will continue the review after the elections, but critics say the momentum has been lost, and the politicians are now likely to claw back control of the process from the public.